66. A Disturbance
A Disturbance
When they asked me about my sisters,
I told Asteria and Leto I was close with none.
And while this was true, there were some
I hated more than others.
Acaste, with her cold emerald eyes,
and her cruel, beautiful followers,
Amphiro and Callirhoe, were
my least favourite of all.
Now here they were,
close to my and Asteria’s sacred cave.
Standing on what I had known
as safe sands away from them.
They were a corruption of nymphs.
Their unkindness had many targets
and my loneliness, they had assumed,
had made me one too.
This mistake had cost them in the past.
It would cost them again.
I got to my feet, as did Asteria,
to look them in the eye.
‘Why,’ I hissed slowly, venomously,
‘are you here?’
‘We always wonder where you disappear
to, my dear sister.’ Acaste’s poisonous
smile was not lost on me.
‘So we came out to find you.’
From the corner of my eye,
I saw Leto and Metis approach
with their new pet fox.
‘Well, you have found me,’ I said.
‘Indeed, we have,’ Acaste replied.
The air felt like it was touched with
a crackle of storms. The three of them
did not move even when Metis reached them.
‘Perhaps it is time for you to go.’
Asteria addressed the nymphs.
She looked at me, then at Metis.
Acaste’s gaze turned to her.
‘Is this your new sister?’ she smiled,
and Metis, still innocent to the world,
smiled back. ‘Shame about her eyes.
Yellow eyes make her look like a snake.’
Acaste turned back to me. ‘Just like you, Styx.’
My fists clenched as I saw Metis’s face fall.
‘Leave her be, Acaste. Or I will—’
A gentle hand touched my shoulder
and I whirled around to see Leto.
Leto stepped forward between us,
shielding Metis and me
from their cruel gaze.
‘If you have something to say,’
Leto said quietly, ‘say it.’
Amphiro sniffed in her direction.
‘We would rather address Styx.’
Leto’s next words were measured.
‘And you are standing before three Goddesses.’
Asteria’s voice joined her sister’s.
‘Remember your place. Speak or leave.’
At the invoking of divine superiority,
goddesshood over their nymph status,
my sisters backed down reluctantly
to my own satisfaction.
‘Apologies,’ Acaste murmured,
proud shoulders hunching slightly.
‘You have all been summoned
to our father’s halls.’
‘Why?’ Leto asked as Metis slipped
her little hand in hers. When they did not
answer, she spoke louder.
‘I asked why.’
Her voice was as electric as my eel,
the threat of a thunder within it.
‘They… The brothers are here,’
Callirhoe said quickly.
Asteria and I frowned at each other.
‘What brothers?’ I asked,
but my sisters were already backing away,
cowering from Leto’s gaze.